Greens want federal ICAC

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has moved to clarify he has never held a formal meeting with Australian Water Holdings chief executive Nick Di Girolamo, but he may have met the Liberal Party fund-raiser at party events.

A day after Barry O'Farrell resigned as premier of NSW after revelations he misled a corruption inquiry over a bottle of wine given to him by Mr Di Girolamo, Mr Abbott welcomed the elevation of Mike Baird as the new Premier of NSW.

Among federal Liberals, talk immediately turned to the prospect of a stronger relationship between the state and federal governments, with a shared commitment to selling old and building new infrastructure likely to be a cornerstone of the relationship.

And speculation is also growing in Coalition ranks about the longer-term future of stood-aside assistant federal treasurer Arthur Sinodinos, a former director of AWH who stepped back from his portfolio in mid-March over his links to the company, which is being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

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A second ICAC hearing into AWH is due to begin on April 28 and Mr Sinodinos is expected to appear before the body again, though he has promised the hearings will vindicate his claims of no wrongdoing. There is a developing view in the party that Senator Sinodinos may be too politically damaged to return to the frontbench.

On Thursday Mr Abbott paid tribute to Mr O'Farrell while predicting Mr Baird would be a fine leader of NSW.

"I have known Mike for many years and I know he will discharge his responsibilities with integrity and honour," he said. "Mike has served in the NSW Parliament since 2007 and as NSW treasurer since 2011. During his time as treasurer, Mike has kept a firm hand on the NSW finances."

Mr Abbott's office brushed aside suggestions of possible inconsistencies between a statement given to the Senate in March about interactions he may have had with Mr Di Girolamo and subsequent statements.

Responding to a question from Labor's Penny Wong, Liberal Senate leader Eric Abetz told the Senate in March that the "Prime Minister has not met with Mr Nick Di Girolamo".

The Prime Minister's office said on Thursday that Mr Abbott attended many community events and other functions, with up to 1000 people at some functions.

"Representatives from Australian Water Holdings may have attended events that the Prime Minister also attended. However, a check of the Prime Minister's diary back to 2005 confirms that the office is not aware of any meetings between the Prime Minister and Mr Di Girolamo. This is consistent with an earlier response provided to the Senate last month."

Soon after the last federal election, Mr Abbott said he was determined to ensure there were no real or apparent conflicts of interest at the federal level, as he endorsed reforms planned by the Liberal Party.

"I'm determined to ensure that you can either be a power broker or a lobbyist but you can't be both,'' he said at the time.

In his first press conference after being chosen as Premier, Mr Baird spoke about NSW's "huge infrastructure backlog" and how the O'Farrell government had begun work on $30 billion in projects.

"Each of my three budgets have been built on three pillars - improving services, building infrastructure and protecting the vulnerable," he said. "That is exactly what this Government will continue to do."

The new Premier - who sold off Port Botany and Port Kembla and played a key role in hammering out the state-federal deal to choose the Badgerys Creek airport site, as well as related roads infrastructure - promised to keep pursuing new projects, leaving open the prospect of selling the state's electricity poles and wires.

Federal Assistant Infrastructure Minister Jamie Briggs, who helped hammer out the Badgerys Creek deal with Mr Baird, said the new Premier had been "terrific" to deal with over the western Sydney package.

"He has been fantastic to work with, innovative, NSW has been a good state to deal with," Mr Briggs said. "He will be terrific for NSW, this is a good outcome from a bad situation.

"I see him as having a similar economic view to myself, which fits nicely with the agenda that we are pursuing."

Mr Briggs is close to economic dries including Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann. Last month, Mr Hockey laid out an ambitious plan to offer states 15 per cent incentive payments for selling their so-called brownfield assets and recycling the money into new, or greenfield projects.

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